5 replies to this topic

[François Goulet]

Hi!

I just got a phone call and need to find a "economic" map of Ukraine (localization of its economic activities). I need to add on an existing map, the major economic center (energy (I have nuclear, but nothing about coal, hydroelectricity), gas, manufactures, ...) with pretty icons and so far, my research returns practically nothing.

I know there's not a point shapefile out there with all that, but any reference map, or at least a list of the major economic activity for each oblast would be helpful...

I'm not used for asking without having doing anything I could, but it's for a new client and I can really ask for an extension, since it's obviously a new client and it's for a weekly newspaper so they won't wait for me (I'm not used to ask for extension anyway so I don't want to start now )

Thanks a million times!

[François Goulet]

Nobody could help me, but I finally manage to find some good references...

Here's the result... For comments, I'll post it in the Map Gallery too...

Attached Files

•  001_Ukraine.jpg   462.3K   50 downloads

[frax]

Care to share your data sources, for future reference? I am especially interested in the pipeline sources... The popdens is landscan or GPW (prolly the later) I assume.

I can't imagine that nuclear powerplants are that hard to get, and agriculture is not so location specific - but I would be curious about mining/oil.

[François Goulet]

I know I won't win a award for "exceptional research" on that one...

The population density is, as you guess, 2.5' GPW. Nuclear power plants too were easy to find (full list by country with lat/long: http://www.icjt.org/npp/world.html w/ cross-checking)

For the pipelines and economic activities, I hate to do this, but I had to check other maps and atlases (well, I obviously simplify some features sometimes so simplifying already maybe-simplified features gave a really simplified results ). For the pipelines, it was a 2005 Monde diplomatique article about Ukraine and for the economic activities, Weldon Owen's Illustrated Atlas of the World.

I really do hate to do this , but I did a re-check search though, just to be sure. Search for principal economic activities of the most oblast I could find, mix with an "old" agricultural map I did earlier, looked for newly constructed pipelines, ... I do hope that the publisher will acknowledge my sources because I always give them to them.

[frax]

he he, that le monde diplo map was likely prepared by colleague. Using other maps is fair game, when it is used with respect, love and tact - and you obviously did not just copy the map.

I always find pipelines difficult, since it is hard to find exact sources, and sometimes there is a mix of projected/existing pipelines, or data from a few years back.

For mineral resources, ArcAtlas is getting quite outdated, but can be a useful starting point.

The Times Atlas also has a good collection of plates with thematic stuff.

Did you try to find any national sources? e.g. Ukrainian mapping agencies and/or geological survey or UNDP/OECD/EEA/EU/World Bank country reports etc... ?

[François Goulet]

Did you try to find any national sources? e.g. Ukrainian mapping agencies and/or geological survey or UNDP/OECD/EEA/EU/World Bank country reports etc... ?

Yeah, I tried that, but they're mostly data at national level, or there's a part of their site I haven't discover yet I had ArcAtlas, vMap0, ... all outdated and incompleted.

I know that everyone must from time to time use another map as reference (and I have a nice long talk with my company's lawyer about copyright), but I had so much problem with that in the past... I worked on an historical atlas of Canada and the references where overly simplified, bad quality (if not simply wrong!), ...

I had to find the 1982 text of the Canadian Constitution with all the previous constitutional texts where boundaries were mentioned (following that river from that point to that point, then following this parallel until...) and start from scratch.

I'm often asked to "cheat" reality a little for clarity sake (it happens a lot on thematic map, particularly when a point indicates a region like on my map) so If I take those as reference, my result may be far from the reality (and I'm not starting a debate about maps being representation of reality). As for the pipeline, the final result looked a lot like the original because the client liked the arrows indicating the flow so I may be closer of me reference as I may like...

I'll try to do better on my next one